


Tell

by Pretzelcoatlus



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-02
Updated: 2014-04-02
Packaged: 2018-01-17 23:30:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1406590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pretzelcoatlus/pseuds/Pretzelcoatlus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haru won't let Makoto sing, which is kind of inconvenient since they're at a karaoke bar and everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tell

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a friend (ryuuko13 on Tumblr). Happy ultra super late birthday lmfao

“Makoto’s turn!”

It was inevitable, really. What would be the point of going to a karaoke booth if you weren’t going to sing, right? Unless you wanted to watch people make fools of themselves. That wasn’t like Makoto, though.

“No thank you, Nagisa,” he said, waving his hands defensively, his eyes shut in a queasy smile and his cheeks pink. Haru stared intently at him as the big guy shrunk under his gaze. His eyes turned up to Nagisa, who was standing over him. Rei hung back, still burning up to his ears in embarrassment as he clenched a microphone in his sweaty palms, threatening to pop the top off. Gou watched with interest, sitting across from the both of them on the other couch—she would have sat with Haru and Makoto if the tension between them hadn’t pushed her like an incompatibly charged magnet to the other side of the room.

“ _Why?_ ” The pitch of Nagisa’s whining threatened to burst eardrums. Haru’s iron glare was still set upon him, pushing Makoto down into the stiff, cheap cushions of the sofa.

“I, uh, don’t like singing…” Makoto squeaked.

“Come on, Mako-chan!” Nagisa protested, puffing out his cheeks and stomping his foot. “Rei-chan doesn’t like singing either but he did it and he had fun! Didn’t you, Rei?”  
  
“No,” Rei shuddered. Nagisa rolled his eyes.

“Even if he didn’t, it’s no fun if it’s only three people singing out of five! It’s not like we’re going to get Haru-chan to sing. I’m not even going to try that.”

“I won’t,” said Haru plainly. “And neither will he.”

“What business is it of yours?” Nagisa huffed, shifting his ire to the other boy. Haru turned his eyes to the table rather than Nagisa—though he could gauge Haru’s slowly rising level of irritation, he was just happy to get that gaze off of him.

“It isn’t any of my business,” Haru assured him, “but he said he didn’t want to sing, so drop it.”

“Makoto,” Gou chimed in, though there was hesitation in her voice. “Do you really not want to sing?”

As if trained to, Haru, again, turned on Makoto quick enough that he could have snapped his own spine. Makoto, again, shrunk and sputtered, wrung the fabric of his pants, looked up and away.

“O-of course not!” Makoto chuckled, and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not that great of a singer, you know? It’s embarrassing…”

Nagisa peered closely, eyes squinting. “That’s a tell.”

“A what?”

“A tell! When a person looks up and away and rubs their neck that means they’re lying and they feel bad about it!”

“So what if he’s lying?” Haru countered, voice raising to a level unusual for him, making everyone (save for the single-minded Nagisa) to stare blankly at him. “Drop it, Nagisa, he’s not singing.”

“Haru,” Gou interjected. “You’ve told Makoto that he can’t sing, haven’t you?”

Makoto jolted upright, hands clenched in front of his chest, eyes wide, while Haru sunk backwards into the sofa.

“N-no, he didn’t!”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Why would you do that, Haru?” Gou said, glowering at him. “You shouldn’t force a friend to not do something he enjoys… isn’t that cruel?”

Haru tensed noticeably at that. His fingers clenched the wrinkles of his sleeve that had bunched up in the crooks of his crossed arms. He dared not look up at her. The atmosphere seemed to darken around them, even with the cheerful music bleeding through the walls.

Gou felt a lump in her throat that compelled her to open her mouth to speak, only to be startled by Makoto leaping from his seat, gesticulating wildly, his kind face marred by furrowed brows and a worried set to his mouth.

“That—it’s not cruel!” Makoto protested, swinging his arms. “It’s a long story, Gou, it’s not his fault, you shouldn’t—“

“Makoto.”

Somehow, his near-silent call drowned out Makoto’s emphatic defense, and brought the tall boy to look down at him in worry.

“Don’t worry about it, it… it was cruel,” he admitted, looking down at his lap. “You can sing if you want to, Makoto. It’s okay.”

“But Haru—“

“Really.” Finally, they met eyes. Haru had softened, even saddened, perhaps, his straight expression weary now… and, strangely, his cheeks were tinged with red.

“I’ll deal with it. Go ahead and sing, Makoto.”

Makoto’s mouth dropped open, and he soon brightened, grinning down at Haru. He fell back onto the sofa and flung his arms around him, pressing their faces together at the cheek, Makoto nuzzling into Haru’s skin and smiling brightly. Haru, with wide, blank eyes, looked as though steam were going to shoot out through his ears.

“Finally!” Nagisa cheered, bouncing up and down and clapping enthusiastically. Haru finally regained the brainpower to pull away from Makoto, worming out of his grip. It didn’t seem to put a damper on Makoto’s mood in any sort of way, though the big guy didn’t have the time to think it over as Nagisa grabbed his wrist and tugged him towards the karaoke machine. Gou was relieved to see the tension absolved so quickly, though she had very little idea of what had _actually_ happened just then. She pretended to watch Nagisa wrangle Rei into singing something with him and Makoto but surreptitiously glanced at Haru every now and then—Haru kept his eyes trained on his lap, only glancing up at them every now and then. Was he… jealous? It didn’t seem like it. Haru was never one to get into silly things like this, but why else would he want Makoto to sit it out with him?

That question was answered as soon as Makoto opened his mouth to sing. It seemed innocent enough to her—Makoto had a lovely voice, holding his notes even with a smile at his lips and a laugh threatening to spill out thanks to Nagisa’s antics—but when Gou checked on Haruka again, he saw him with his legs and arms crossed tightly, his face bright red… and his coat off, spread across his lap. The flush on his cheeks only deepened every time Makoto hit a high or low note effortlessly and he seemed to be… squirming… in his seat, brows furrowed and eyes closed. Gou immediately snapped her eyes away, feeling a little queasy and all too aware.

 

Rei and Nagisa wore out long before Makoto did, to the point they simply could no longer give into Makoto’s pleas to continue, and even lasted long after Gou could manage to sing. She couldn’t focus much on singing, anyway—not with the inevitable glance at Haruka, tightly wound on his seat.

“I-I guess that’s it for today!” said Nagisa, his shrill voice now worn down and ragged. “Ugh, I hope I don’t lose my voice entirely…”

“You probably will,” Rei chided, similarly hoarse. “You pushed it. We were in there for _hours_.”

“But it was fun!” Nagisa replied with a grin, trying not to cough afterward. He gathered his phone and his jacket, slipping the latter around his shoulders. “Especially with a guy like Makoto participating! You should sing more often, Mako-chan!”

Haruka looked about ready to bash his face onto the table in front of him. He was still perched on his seat, elbows on his knees, head hung low. Makoto took a look at him before chuckling awkwardly.

“I-I guess so, but it’s embarrassing in public!” he said, not exactly lying.

“Well, we should get going,” Rei said with an authoritative (or so he thinks) adjustment of his glasses. “We have our morning group jog, don’t we?”

“That’s right!” Gou piped in suddenly. “W-we should turn in early…”

Makoto’s eyes widened in realization and he nodded. He looked again towards Haruka and reached down his hand to help him up off his seat—Haru glared up at him accusingly with an intensity hardly ever seen without a pool nearby. Makoto paled, twitching a nervous smile.

“A-are you feeling okay?” he asked, and Haru shook his head, still glaring.

“O-oh, s-so you’re not? I-I guess I should let you rest for a bit, huh?”

Makoto turned to the rest of the group with a smile that begged them to buy that flimsy excuse. Gou met his eyes and nodded with understanding, ushering the two other confused teenagers out of the room.

“Wait, shouldn’t we check to see if Haruka’s—“

“He’s fine!”

Gou kicked the door shut. Muffled protests came through the door and were quickly silenced.

It took a while for Makoto to be able to look at Haru, and when he did, Haru was much closer, standing, his coat tossed aside on the couch and his hands wringing Makoto’s shirt.

Makoto opened his mouth to apologize.

“You’re forgiven,” said Haruka, tugging him harder. “Just take care of it already.”


End file.
